Goblin Dependency
Chapter 118 - 85: Scuffle

Chapter 118: Chapter 85: Scuffle

Midsummer Day, for the people on the Aifala Continent, it’s no exaggeration to call it a day of national celebration.

And as adventurers who walk the tightrope all year round, with substantial income but living precariously.

Such an important annual festival is naturally impossible to miss.

White Sparrow Tavern.

Unlike the solemnity of the central plaza, this place, already filled with alcohol and music, is especially boisterous today.

The originally spacious hall is almost filled with adventurers, and the waiters carrying trays and drinks are busy shuttling between tables, their aprons almost soaked with sweat.

The tavern owner is quite the marketing genius.

Occupying a prime location near the adventurer association, and with booming business, he organized a special celebration event on Midsummer Festival day.

"White Sparrow Drinking Competition"

A large cup of specially spiced drink; if a challenger can finish it in one go, they’re awarded a whole night of free drinks;

If they fail, they need to pay a bill of "1 silver coin" for the special drink.

Honestly, one silver coin isn’t particularly expensive for most adventurers.

After all, it’s just about the price of staying a night in an inn.

By comparison, the allure of the free drinks reward is even greater.

Once the news got out, nearly half the adventurers in town flocked to the tavern, only to mostly fail miserably.

The special spices in the drink seem to have a strong stimulating effect.

A few gulps, and the overpowering aroma, even stronger than the signature pepper of the Grim Region, will make you spit out the drink and cough violently.

Of course, at least as a serious businessman, the tavern needs to keep running afterwards.

The owner handles the situation with perfect balance.

Not everyone is unsuccessful; occasionally, a few adventurers with strong constitutions or less sensitive to the smell can win the reward.

Among about ten challengers, there might be one or two.

And every time someone wins a free drink, the tavern owner seizes the opportunity to announce it loudly, enticing a new wave of onlookers to join in.

At this moment, it seems another challenger is about to succeed.

It’s a tall and thin man wearing a loose robe.

He tilts his head back, eyes tightly shut, Adam’s apple bobbing, gripping the cup with his dry, thin hand, crystal-clear liquid trickling down from the corner of his mouth; his face roughened by years of sand and wind turns crimson, nostrils flaring from the drink’s strong stimulus.

As if he might cough at any second, yet persists with sheer willpower.

"A Kalinshan?"

Xia Nan’s gaze sweeps over the man’s hair and skin, speculating in his heart.

The urgent cramming of knowledge in recent days had given him some understanding of the world’s geography and culture.

Kalinshan is an area located in the southern part of the continent, characterized mainly by deserts and wastelands.

Slave trade, date palm trees, spices, and mercenaries...

The scorching sun and the relentless sandstorms endow the people living there with tawny skin and curly, dry black hair.

Add to that the gemstone rings on the man’s fingers and the metal hair rings on his braided hair ends, distinctive cultural symbols, it’s not hard to identify him as one of the "Desert People."

Nothing surprising about that.

River Valley Town, as an important adventurer town in Pan Yun Province, constantly sees adventurers from all over the continent coming to strike it rich.

Kalinshan people, though not common, are not entirely absent either.

"Xia Nan, what do you say, want to give it a try?"

Seeing Xia Nan enter the tavern, the owner "Chapton" invites him with a smile.

After staying in the tavern for so many days, the two naturally knew each other’s names, not particularly close, but barely count as ordinary friends.

To this, Xia Nan just smiles and politely declines.

"Let’s not earn my money. I’ll have set menu No. 3."

"Haha, alright then!"

The memories from his previous life made him well familiar with these commercial tricks, and after suffering being a ’cut leek’ by various merchants time and again, he naturally wouldn’t be fooled after crossing over.

He randomly found a corner with relatively fewer guests to sit down.

The tall and thin man at the bar challenging the special drink seems on the verge of succeeding.

He lifted his already tilted head abruptly, pouring the last bit of drink from the cup into his mouth.

"Bang!" The empty cup was slammed onto the table, the man’s chest heaving violently, the pungent smell of the drink making it almost impossible for him to catch his breath.